1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for electrically providing coarse and fine movements of a stage etc. of a microscope.
2. Related Background Art
A microscope has hitherto been provided with a stage for mounting a specimen thereon. This stage is operated in up-and-down directions (Z-directions) and right-and-left directions and front-and-back directions (XY directions), thus controlling a position of the specimen with respect to an observation optical system within the microscope. The stage operation in Z directions is executed through a Z operating device, while the stage operation in the XY directions is executed through an XY operating device.
In recent years, a great majority of microscopes are connected to computers and thus used. Accordingly, there must be increasingly the microscopes of such a type that the stage etc. is electrically driven by use of a motor.
In the beginning, this type of stage operating device was constructed as a push switch for driving the motor. A simple operation through the push switch might cause a sense of incongruity in operation to the user accustomed to the dial operation. In particular, this sense of incongruity increases in a device for providing coarse and fine movements of the stage in the up-and-down directions.
Such being the case, the present applicant proposed an electrically-driven stage coarse and fine movement apparatus in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-166547 U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/569,394).
This apparatus is constructed of two shafts, i.e., a coarse movement shaft 51 driven by a coarse movement operation handle 50, and a fine movement shaft 53 driven by a fine movement operation handle 52. Then, an unillustrated first rotary encoder detecting unit detects a rotational quantity of a rotary encoder wheel 54 attached to the coarse movement shaft 51. Then, a control device controls the coarse movement on the basis of this detection signal. Further, an unillustrated second rotary encoder detecting unit detects a rotational quantity of a rotary encoder wheel 55 attached to the fine movement shaft 53. Then, the control device controls the fine movement of on the basis of this detection signal.
Further, in such a biaxial type of stage operating device, as illustrated in FIG. 8, the coarse movement operation handle 50 and the fine movement operation handle 52 are provided at both ends of the coarse movement shaft 51 and at both ends of the fine movement shaft 53. This is because a right or left direction from which the coarse and fine movement operation handles are operated, is unknown.
This type of earlier technology device requires, however, although capable of providing the coarse movement and the fine movement and exhibiting a good operability, two rotary encoder wheels and the detecting units in order to detect the respective rotational quantities of the two shafts. This might be a factor to increase a manufacturing cost of the stage operating device and particularly of the microscope. Further, it is required that the rotary encoder wheels be provided for the two shafts, and hence a comparatively large space in terms of dimension is needed, which might be a factor to hinder downsizing of the stage operating device.
Moreover, in the case of the coarse and fine movement apparatus being used for moving the stage up and down, an XY handle for operating the stage in the XY directions is separately provided.
As explained above, the coarse movement operation handle and the fine movement operation handle are provided at both ends of the coarse and fine movement apparatus, and therefore there must be a possibility in which the XY handle disposed beside the stage may interfere with the coarse and fine movement operation handles. In order to avoid this interference, the XY handle has hitherto been disposed in a position spaced away from the coarse and fine movement operation handles.
If the coarse and fine movement operation handles exist away from the XY handle, however, a decline in the operability is caused and demanded to be ameliorated in terms of human engineering.
Note that whether the XY handle is disposed on the right or left side with respect to the microscope body may be decided differently depending on the countries. A change in the specifications of the coarse and fine movement apparatus are varied according to the countries in accordance with the disposition of the XY handle, might be a large burden on a manufacturing process and on a management of product.